Masih Alinejad grew up in a country where she was taught to shout “Death to America!” Decades later, she is a citizen of the republic she was taught to hate that she credits for saving her life from her homeland.
“I love America, and I am ready to sacrifice my life for America to protect America from the most barren regimes over time,” Alinejad proclaimed at the Concerned Women for America annual summit over the weekend. “And I want to tell you, do not apologize for your love for this country, because this is the dream of millions of people living under authoritarian regimes to have a country to protect them, to protest, to challenge, to speak up, to stand up against tyranny.”
Alinejad, a journalist and human rights activist from Iran, escaped to the United States and became a citizen in 2019 — but has since survived multiple kidnapping and assassination attempts on her life.
In 2021, the Iran regime attempted to kidnap Alinejad from the United States to move her to Venezuela, and then back to Iran, reported the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The following year, the regime tried to kill her outside of her home in Brooklyn, New York, according to U.S. law enforcement. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed a plot by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp to assassinate Alinejad as well.
Her crime? Speaking out for freedom and equality.
In 2014, Alinejad started My Stealthy Freedom, a campaign against women being forced to wear a hijab in Iran. She says while American women watch episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale” from the comfort of their homes, Iranian women are living it: “My sisters, your fiction is our reality in Iran. Your fiction is our reality in Afghanistan.”
“Women are not even allowed to sing. Forget about singing. Women are not allowed to speak in Afghanistan under Taliban,” Alinejad continued. “This is called Islamism. Women receive lashes. Women are not allowed to travel abroad without men, without their husband or their male relative.”
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